Quotes by Mark Twain

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldnt it be?--it is the same the angels breathe.

I find that, as a rule, when a thing is a wonder to us it is not because of what we see in it, but because of what others have seen in it. We get almost all our wonders at second hand.

I deserve it all. Let the cold world do its worst; one thing I know--theres a grave somewhere for me. The world may go on just as its always done, and take everything from me--loved ones, property, everything--but it cant take that. Some day Ill lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken heart will be at rest.

Perfect grammar--persistent, continuous, sustained--is the fourth dimension, so to speak: many have sought it, but none has found it.

Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky. It is the prohibition that makes anything precious

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

Of all Gods creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

A person that started in to carry a cat home by the tail was gitting knowledge that was always going to be useful to him, and warnt ever going to grow dim or doubtful.

Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it aint so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.

While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats.

Thats the way with a cat, you know -- any cat; they dont give a damn for discipline. And they cant help it, theyre made so. But it aint really insubordination, when you come to look at it right and fair -- its a word that dont apply to a cat. A cat aint ever anybodys slave or serf or servant, and cant be -- it aint in him to be. And so, he dont have to obey anybody. He is the only creature in heaven or earth or anywhere that dont have to obey somebody or other, including the angels. It sets him above the whole ruck, it puts him in a class by himself. He is independent. You understand the size of it? He is the only independent person there is. In heaven or anywhere else. Theres always somebody a king has to obey -- a trollop, or a priest, or a ring, or a nation, or a deity or what not -- but it aint so with a cat. A cat aint servant nor slave to anybody at all. Hes got all the independence there is, in Heaven or anywhere else, there aint any left over for anybody else. Hes your friend, if you like, but thats the limit -- equal terms, too, be you king or be you cobbler; you cant play any Im-better-than-you on a cat -- no, sir! Yes, hes your friend, if you like, but you got to treat him like a gentleman, there aint any other terms. The minute you dont, he pulls freight.

Then the cow asked:What is a mirror?It is a hole in the wall, said the cat. You look in it, and there you see the picture, and it is so dainty and charming and ethereal and inspiring in its unimaginable beauty that your head turns round and round, and you almost swoon with ecstasy.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word. Consider the flea!-Incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage. Whether you are asleep or awake he will attack you, caring nothing for the fact that in bulk and strength you are to him as are the massed armies of the earth to a sucking child; he lives both day and night and all days and nights in the very lap of peril and the immediate presence of death, and yet is no more afraid than is the man who walks the streets of a city that was threatened by an earthquake ten centuries before. When we speak of Clive, Nelson, and Putnam as men who didnt know what fear was, we ought always to add the flea-and put him at the head of the procession.

Humor is tragedy plus time.

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: I wasnt worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.

Use what you stand for and what you oppose as a foundation to write great content that resonates with readers and creates a ripple effect.

We had a little slave boy whom we had hired from some one, there in Hannibal. He was from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and had been brought away from his family and his friends, half way across the American continent, and sold. He was a cheery spirit, innocent and gentle, and the noisiest creature that ever was, perhaps. All day long he was singing, whistling, yelling, whooping, laughing - it was maddening, devastating, unendurable. At last, one day, I lost all my temper, and went raging to my mother, and said Sandy had been singing for an hour without a single break, and I couldnt stand it, and wouldnt she please shut him up.The tears came into her eyes, and her lip trembled, and she said something like this - Poor thing, when he sings, it shows that he is not remembering, and that comforts me; but when he is still, I am afraid he is thinking, and I cannot bear it. He will never see his mother again; if he can sing, I must not hinder it, but be thankful for it. If you were older, you would understand me; then that friendless childs noise would make you glad. It was a simple speech, and made up of small words, but it went home, and Sandys noise was not a trouble to me any more.

To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a Negro. She was a slave, and salable as such.